released bythetalibantoldthe bbc he believes the deal was done to secure his freedom. canada welcomes william and kate on their first official trip abroad. it is 11:00 a.m. here in singapore. >> we're broadcasting to viewers on pbs america and around the world. >> venezuelan president hugo job as within the last few hours held -- hugo chavez with in the last few hours held a press conference. he is recovering from surgery. the president acknowledged he had a tumor and had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous cells. he says he is determined to fight and is on the road to recovery. sara joins me now. after watching the footage over the last few days, this comes as a bit of a surprise. >> it does. it is quite a big admission because the government has tried to manage this illness. the president has let information out here and there, but no great disclosure. this speech by the president somewhat unexpected and very serious. it was very obvious from watching it that he has had some serious health problems. he lost a lot of weight. his voice is much weaker than we are used to hearing. v

talibanstrongholdparticularly in the south. another major change in the last year is the surge in afghan security forces. there are now 100,000 more afghan security forces than 18 months ago when president obama announced the surge and another 70,000 afghan soldiers and police will be trained and equipped by the end of next summer when all 33,000 u.s. search trips will have withdrawn. in the testimony to congress last week, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mollen characterized the president's decision as, quote, more aggressive and incurring more risk than mcraven had initially recommended. however, admiral mullen felt, could come only the president and the end can really determine the acceptable level of risk we must take because as he put it, quote, the truth is we would have run other kind of risks by keeping more forces in afghanistan longer. and among the other risks for the risks of perpetuating the greater afghan dependent on the forces and inhibiting the growth and keep the devotee and confidence on the part of the afghan forces. the committee will be interested

where we are training security forces and where we are working to provide stability againstthetalibanandthe kind of structure that we need to support going after al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan -- that perhaps it is time to shut down $17 billion worth of money going to reconstruction projects when our track record really stings. i hope you all will convince me i am too cynical and angry and frustrated about the way we are spending money in theater. and i want to tell you, i am looking for good news and i hope we hear some today. there are too many people in missouri saying why can we fix this road, and then i look of the projects we are doing in afghanistan and it is very hard to explain to them why we can't fix that the road because we can't afford it -- yet we can throw money away in afghanistan on projects that were clearly not sustainable. and anybody spend any time thinking about it in the first place we would realize that. that kind of planning has to begin happening and that kind of accountability has to be present. senator portman is here. i will give him a time to get

to provide stabilityagainsttalibanandthe kind of structure that we need to support going after al qaeda on the border of pakistan and afghanistan. perhaps it is time to shut down $17 billion worth of money going for reconstruction projects when our track record really stings when it comes to reconstruction projects. i hope that you all will convince me that i have become cynical and angry and frustrated about the way we are spending money in theater. i am looking for good news, and i hope we hear some today. but i think it is time for a guest check because i have too many people in missouri saying why can we fix this road? then i look at the practice we are building in afghanistan and it is hard to explain to them why we cannot fix that road. because we cannot afford it, but yet we can throw money away in afghanistan on projects that are not sustainable. if anybody had spent time thinking about it in the first place, they would have realized that. that kind of accountability has to be present. i am pleased that we have a number of witnesses today that are going to testify to contracting

of united states meetingswithtalibanofficialsand also what pakistan can bring to the table? pakistan has talked frequently about needing to have a seat at the table. what do you bring to the table? the americans have said you need to either sever your relationship for example with the haqqani network or bring them into this process. what can pakistan do in order to make this process work better? >> first of all, we support a reconciliation in afghanistan because we understand that wars essentially always and through some kind of reconciliation and talks anyway. so, the reconciliation process in afghanistan has to be led at the afghans. it is their country, and to bring to an and the eternal conflict in afghanistan that started after the departure of the soviets way back in 89. the soviets -- continued to hold on and after 1992 there was the famous war that brought the taliban to power. so we did not want in any way to intervene in the internal afghan process. it has to be an afghan-led process. we are very closely in contact with the afghan leadership. president karzai has visited pakist